Man held in N.J. killing charged in N.M. deaths

Authorities on Friday charged a man already accused of a beating death in New Jersey with murder and other counts in New Mexico in the slaying of his ex-wife and two of her friends who were lured to their deaths over a period of weeks before they were dismembered and their remains stuffed into plastic bins.

An arrest warrant affidavit for Sean Lannon, 47, details the gruesome weeks that followed the January shooting death of his ex-wife Jennifer Lannon, 39, at the home the couple shared with their three children in the city of Grants, about 80 miles west of Albuquerque.

Lannon told investigators during an interview following his arrest in the New Jersey case that he found Jennifer and Jesten Mata, 40, together at home. He claimed the two were having an affair and had given the children drugs to get them to sleep. He said that after Mata left, Jennifer began to freak out because she thought the children were dead.

According to the affidavit, Lannon claimed Jennifer tried to overdose on heroin, saying she couldn’t live without the kids. She still had a pulse so he said he shot her in the head. He told authorities he planned to kill himself but then heard one of the children cry out and put the gun down. Lannon told investigators that he put Jennifer’s body and the bedding into a container and placed it in the backyard.

It would be a week before he could lure Mata back to the home and kill him, he told investigators. According to authorities, Lannon claimed Mata had shown him a sexually explicit photo. Another week went by before Matthew Miller, 21, came over and was also shot in the back of the head. Lannon also had accused Miller of selling drugs to his ex-wife and Mata.